When First Impressions Are Wrong: Miki Agrawal’s Thinx

Sometimes first impressions are wrong. While waiting for lecturer Miki Agrawal to begin her speakeasy talk at the Wanderlust Yoga festival in Whistler, she flashed her underwear quickly at a couple friends in the front row. It was over in a second – but it made my friend and I do a double take … it seemed a bit overly casual (at best) and kinda sorta unprofessional.

Agrawal is a millennial entrepreneur and author of Do Cool Sh*t. The lecture caption was just long enough to draw us in but cut off just before it might have explained things…

Pretty soon Agrawal was telling us about meeting a girl in Africa who was out of school for the day. When asked why, she said it was her week of shame – her period had arrived. Girls in Africa often miss a week of school during their periods and they have higher rates of teen pregnancy as a result.

Agrawal and her two business partners have created a line of stylish underwear for women to wear ahead of their periods, Thinx. Thinx is absorbent, moisture wicking and all kinds of good stuff. But even better, when you buy a pair of Thinx, they buy 7 Afripads for girls in Africa to stay in school during menstruation, hopefully reducing teen pregnancy rates.

Soon, Agrawal flashed her underwear to the entire audience – to great applause. Here’s more about Thinx.

Agrawal is an inspiring millennial as opposed to the faceless millennials some of my friends like to dis 🙂 She teased parts of Do Cool Sh*t: Quit Your Day Job, Start Your Own Business, and Live Happily Ever After and it intrigued me: “In Do Cool Sh*t, serial social entrepreneur, angel investor, and all-around cool sh*t–doer Miki Agrawal shows how to start a successful company—from brainstorming to raising money to getting press without any connections—all while having a meaningful life!

With zero experience and no capital, Miki Agrawal opened WILD, a farm-to-table pizzeria in New York City and Las Vegas, partnered up in a children’s multimedia company called Super Sprowtz, and launched a patented high-tech underwear business called THINX.

Miki has seen significant growth in her businesses. She pulls back the curtain of how you can live out loud, honor your hunches, and leave nothing on the table.”

It was a good example of not reading too deeply into first impressions. I’ve ordered a copy of the book. I encourage you to check out Thinx and consider ordering a pair for yourselves, friends or your loved ones.